Garrett watched every step I took like it was foreplay for him, and I suddenly forgot how to speak. Setting the new bottles on the table, I reached to grab his empty one, but he whipped his hand out at the same time, curling his fingers around my own. He yanked the bottle toward him, and it lurched me forward until I almost fell into his lap.
I placed a hand against his shoulder, propping up my weight, and stared down at him, wide-eyed. The position felt oddly similar to the last time I’d held a beer bottle over his lap, and the look he gave me said he was thinking the same thing.
I flushed crimson, scrambling back and wiping my palms on my sides. Turning my body away from the fucking sun, I asked Harry, “You still good?”
Harry was leaned forward, his chin resting in his bear-sized hand, a suspiciously blank expression on his face. “Yeah, I’m good.”
I cleared my throat, refusing to look to the man on my left who was staring a hole into me. “All right then, just flag me down when you’re ready for more.”
“I thought I’d already made it clear I was, but I can tell you as many times as you need to hear it, Maddie.”
My ears were so red, they burned, and I’d never moved from a table faster in my life. The sounds of the brothers’ laughter echoing out behind me.
The remainder of the night went on fairly well, all things considered. It didn’t take long for me to have a full section, including a large party, so I was too busy to over-think Garrett’s presence or his teasing comments.
He seemed to understand that, too, because the minute he saw me hustling from table to table, he toned down his gravitational pull and relaxed into his booth, chatting with his brother.
I was assisting another waitress, and had my arms covered in dishes from my elbows down, when they finally pushed out of their booth.
Garrett met my eyes across the room as he tossed cash and something else onto the table. Then he quietly followed Harry out.
I don’t want to say I sprinted over the minute my arms were free, but it was possible. Tucked under a wad of cash that was way too much for their total, was a folded, wrinkled-looking paper. I snatched it up like a crack addict, reading it, then re-reading it.
I’ll see you after work.
How those five words could be both thrilling and nerve wracking was as confusing as it got. I feel like he was both threatening and teasing me at the same time, and it made me feel like a fire was burning in my belly while ants crawled all over my skin. It was heady.
I stashed the note in my pocket, glancing at the window and half-expecting him to be standing there smirking at me, but he wasn’t.
The fact that I was mildly disappointed should have worried me. The fact that it would have turned me on, should have worried me more.
“You going to change it up tonight, Curly? Or just take your usual?”
I stuck out the tip of my tongue in thought, Garrett’s note burning a hole in my back pocket. Was he really going to wait for me to get home?
“Change it up, but nothing crazy that will hinder me from driving.”
“You got it.”
I left Nate at the bar and stored the broom I’d been using, switching it out for the mop. We’d closed right on time, and this was the last chore on my list.
My manager had long since stopped checking on my closing duties, trusting that I actually did them, so when I was done, I shouted a goodbye toward his office and met Nate on the patio.
“Your poison, my lady.”
I took it, dropping my tired butt into the chair next to him and propping my feet on the bars between the legs of the table. “Oh my God, what is this?”
“Just a lemon drop.”